V is for Vengeance
by PatriciaF
Summary: Sam and Dean's new friend, Pia is attacked, and Dean is out for blood. Although this is a stand-alone story, I would recommend you read "The Devil In His Eyes" first, so you can get to know the new characters.
1. Chapter 1

Episode 2 V is for Vengeance

Pia was in the gym, practicing reverse punches on the heavy bag, when Dean walked in.

"C'mon," Dean taunted, "Show me what you know."

Pia, wearing a tank top and shorts, reluctantly walked across the mat, and stood in front of him. Dean took a mock boxer stance, dancing around her. She gave him a half-hearted punch with her right which he easily blocked. Her left fist replaced it automatically. "You can do better than that, " He teased, "I KNOW you can do better than that!"

Pia was losing patience, "Don't challenge me, Dean." She warned, as her dark eyes flashed.

She became distracted as Sam entered the gym and Dean quickly put her in a headlock, whispering something in her ear. Incensed, Pia stomped on his foot, did a 360 degree turn sweeping his leg, and with an elbow to his left shoulder, dropped him onto the mat. "You're a dick, Dean." She yelled, and stormed out of the room.

"OWWW...What did I say?" Dean called after her, still on the ground.

"What DID you say?" Sam asked as he came closer.

"I swear I thought it was a compliment," Dean insisted.

"Dean..." Sam offered him his hand to help him up.

Dean looked at his brother, sheepishly, "I told her she was a busty Asian babe," He admitted, referring to his favourite stack of erotic magazines.

"SERIOUSLY!? You're a dick, Dean!" He let go of his brother's hand, and Dean fell back onto the floor with a thud. "What the hell's wrong with you?"

"I swear, I thought it..."

"...was a compliment, I know..." Sam interrupted, "What's gotten into you, Dean? It's almost like you've never talked to a girl before."

"I don't know," Dean mused as he got back up off the floor, "I've never felt this way, whenever she comes into the room I get all tongue-tied, and everything I say is wrong." Then he looked on the bright side, "It's like I'm a kid again!" He said with a broad smile.

"Yes you are," Sam agreed, as they walked into the kitchen. Pia was sitting cross-legged at the table with a drink, reading a book from the library. Dean sidled in next to her.

She couldn't help but notice Dean's moony eyes, and shot Sam a bewildered look as he sat across from her with sandwiches from the refrigerator. "I know," Sam whispered from across the table, "he's been like this all week."

"Tell me about it!" She retorted, "I think I liked it better when he hated me!" She tried to change the subject, "By the way, I need to get some things in town." She said to Sam.

"I'll drive you!" Dean volunteered.

"Girl things..." Pia lied, hoping he would retract his offer.

"I LOVE girl things!" Was the nonsensical answer.

"I have my own car, you know, I don't really need a ride..."

"Oh yeah...the Mustang? I took it apart..."

"You WHAT?" Pia and Sam said together.

"I'm giving it the once-over. I call it the 'Winchester Special'!" Dean announced, proudly.

Pia groaned, audibly.

"So, how about that ride?" He insisted.

"Don't you have to work on the 'Winchester Special?'" Sam goaded him on.

"Nah, I can do it when we get back!"

Pia sighed, "What choice do I have?" She conceded. Dean grinned from ear to ear as he led her out of the kitchen. She turned back to Sam and mouthed 'help me'.

Sam shook his head 'no', this was too good to pass up.

Pia's eyes narrowed, and she jokingly gave him the finger as she was ushered out of room.

(...)

Dean had parked the car in a parking lot in the middle of the downtown area. As they walked back to the car, Dean suddenly grabbed Pia's bag. "C'mon, Dean, let me carry something!" Pia chased after him. Dean, feeling playful, held the bag up, so she couldn't reach it. Getting annoyed, she jabbed his ribs. He almost dropped the bag, but she managed to get it away from him, ran to the car, and stopped, dead in her tracks.

Four guys, wearing dark hoodies, had surrounded the Impala. Two of them were busy trying to pry the one of the hubcaps off, whilst another one stood at the side window with a crowbar raised, about to smash his way into the car. The fourth had come with a jack, and was placing it underneath the chassis.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Dean shouted at them. He ran past Pia, and grabbed one of the guys by his hoodie, punching him squarely in the jaw, and then ducked as the crowbar barely missed his head. Dean let go of the hoodie, and threw himself against the guy with the crowbar, knocking him into a brick wall.

Two guys, seeing this as their chance, were braced to ambush Dean, when with a loud cry, Pia threw herself against them, knocking them over like two bowling pins. Not used to fighting with girls, one of them got up, and clumsily tried to grab her. Big mistake. With one quick judo move, she grabbed his hand and twisted it, which made the rest of his arm lock up. As she raised the arm higher, the pain forced him to bend over further, so, when his partner came at her, she made him plow right into him, head first. They both fell over, and Pia, her grip on the boy's arm still solid, made the kill move. Putting her foot between his shoulder and his back, she stepped down, and pulled his arm up. He screamed in pain, which almost drowned out the loud cracking sound, as his shoulder dislocated. His partner in crime gasped as Pia dropped the boy's arm and took a deep breath. Then she looked at the other guy, and made a quick step toward him. He turned and fled, leaving his friend writhing in pain on the ground.

Dean, meanwhile, had his own fight going with the remaining two. He managed to pin one on the ground, and pummelled him repeatedly until his partner came at him with the crowbar. Dean got up, wrenched the crowbar from the boy's hand, and came at him with a threatening gesture. Both boys turned tail and fled into the alleyway, helping their friend up off the ground as they ran.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Dean asked, surprised. He opened the car door to get in. "You were AWESOME!"

Pia shrugged. "I had a workaholic ex-boyfriend that taught karate, so the only way I could spend more time with him was by hanging around his dojo." She said matter of factly, before she got into the car. "I guess I picked up a few moves."

(...)

Back at the bunker, Pia entered the kitchen with her phone at her ear. "Ok, I'll be right there, thank you, SO much!" She hung up the phone. "Hey, you know that piece I needed?" She informed Dean, "They actually had one in the back, I can pick it up right away!" She looked at the boys, "Can anyone give me a ride back to town?"

"It's my turn to make dinner," Sam answered.

"I need to get back to the Mustang," Dean informed her, "But why don't you just take the Impala?" He threw her the keys.

"Really?" She said, surprised, as she caught the keys. "But it's your baby!"

"That's cool, I trust you!"

"Thanks, I'll take good care of it!" She promised.

"How long are you going to be?" Sam asked.

"Hmm, 20 minutes to get there," she pondered, "let's say...20 minutes in the store, and then 20 minutes to get back, I guess I'll be back in about an hour!"

"Good." Sam agreed, "I was just wondering when to start dinner."

"If I'm not back by 6, come and get me!" She joked as she headed for the door.

Sam waited until she left, and turned to his brother, "You TRUST her?" He said to Dean, incredulously, "It took me a year before you let me drive Baby."

"What can I say?" Dean shrugged, heading to the garage, "I have more faith in her than I have in you!" He easily caught the apple Sam hurled at his head, and took a bite as he left the room.

(...)

Having no other frame of reference, Pia pulled into the same parking lot Dean had used earlier that day. She got out, and was heading for the store when she heard someone behind her. "Hey, Shiksa..." he taunted. It was one of the boys that had given them trouble earlier that day.

Pia sensed danger, and as per norm, tried to talk her way out of it. "Shiksa?" She turned around. "Shiksa is Yiddish for a non-Jewish girl." She pointed out, as she kept backing up, "You probably mean Chiquita. That makes you sound like you're in, I don't know...'West Side Story', instead of, say, 'Yentil'."

"Huh?" She had the boy utterly confused.

"Never mind," She turned back around and quickened her pace out of the parking lot. Another boy stepped in front of her. "H...He...y! Fancy meeting you again," she said, noticing his arm was in a sling, "how's the shoulder?"

"Where's your boyfriend?" He asked, dauntingly.

"A...he's not my boyfriend," she tried to stay as calm as possible, "and B...he's NOT my BOYFRIEND." She stressed. "Why does everyone think that? Please move, you're in my way." The boy stayed where he was. In her peripheral vision, she could see the other two closing in on her. "Damn," she thought to herself. It was now or never.

With a swift knee to the groin, she brought the one in front of her down to her level, and, clasping her hands together, she hit him, hard, across the back of his neck. He fell to the ground, doubled over in pain.

Another one gave her a bear hug from behind, and she made a fist, hammering his groin, and bent forward, forcing him to flip over her, onto the hard pavement. Two down, two to go, she thought to herself.

Turning and facing the third attacker as he rushed her, she stepped back, folded her hands together, and swung a sharp uppercut right into his jaw. There was a loud crack, as his head snapped back. Pia's hands went limp, and she shook them around. The pain was more than she had expected, since this was the first time she had ever needed to execute the move in real life. Regardless, the boy received the worst of it, and he staggered away, clasping his mouth in agony. "Ow...ow..." she said to herself as she shook her hands until the pain had somewhat dissipated.

Reluctant to use her hands again, she faced the last boy, the leader of the group, and assumed a fighting stance. Her hands were raised in front of her face merely as a tactical ploy, and as he circled her, she executed a roundhouse to his torso, but he caught her foot, and she fell. Rolling into a somersault, she kicked in the back of his knee with a leg sweep from the ground. He landed with a thud, and she scrambled up, stepping on his chest as she ran off. Keeping her head down, she didn't look back to see if they were chasing her. She turned the corner, and bumped straight into a fifth, huge, mountain of a man.

"Let go of me, you cretin!" She shouted, kicking and screaming while he effortlessly carried her like a sack of potatoes back to the others.

The leader of the group was helping his friends up, and smiled, nefariously, as she was dropped onto the ground. Pia landed, hard, her head smacking into the pavement. The boys quickly descended on her, and pinned her down.

(...)

Dean entered the kitchen wiping his hands on a rag. "One 'Winchester Special' completed!" He announced, proudly. "And in record time, to boot!"

Sam was busy preparing dinner. "That's good, Dean." He said, offhand.

Dean looked around, "Where's Pia?"

"She's not back yet."

Dean scowled, and looked at the clock. "It's almost 7:00, she should have been back an hour ago."

Sam sighed, "I don't know what to tell you, Dean," He was having a hard time juggling cooking and conversation, "Sometimes girls get all wrapped up with shopping." he said, condescendingly.

Dean didn't notice the sarcastic tone in his brother's voice. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He conceded, "Man! You should have seen her, today!" He boasted like a proud father, "She's quite the fighter!"

Sam was confused, "You mean, when she called you a dick?"

"No, this afternoon, when we went into town, there were these four gang..." Dean's expression changed, as he realized in horror his fatal mistake. He suddenly leapt up off his chair. "We've got to go, Sam!" He ran out of the room. Sam was baffled at Dean's sense of urgency, but he knew that whatever it was that spooked him, must've been important. "C'mon, Sam!" Dean called from the garage. Sam turned off the stove, and ran to the car.


	2. Chapter 2

When Pia regained consciousness, she was alone, and darkness had already fallen. She had no idea how long she had lain in the alleyway. Her head throbbed, and she was sore all over. Her mind was in a haze, the only thing she could remember as she drifted in and out of consciousness was that a different boy's face appeared every time she opened her eyes. Her shorts lay on the ground beside her, but her t-shirt still covered most of her body, and she only had one shoe on. She stumbled over to Baby, fished her car keys out of the shorts gripped in her hand, unlocked the door, crawled in, and passed out again.

(...)_

The sleek, black Mustang raced down the highway. "And I gave her the keys!" Lamented Dean. "I should have gone with her!"

"You don't know for sure if she's in trouble," Sam knew it was a lie, but he wanted to calm his brother down. "There's lots of reasons for her to be late." Sam watched all the cars passing by on the other side of the road, trying to see if it was Baby. Finally they reached the town, pulled into the same parking lot, and there was Baby, waiting.

Dean went to the driver's side and looked into the front window. "She's not here," he called to his brother.

Sam picked up a shoe, and looked in the back of the passenger side, opening the door. "She's here!" He went into the back seat, where Pia was lying, curled up in the fetal position.

Dean opened the other door and looked in. "No, no, no, no, no!" He exclaimed as he touched her head. Her hair was matted with blood, and she was barely conscious.

Sam, on the other side, touched her arm. She flinched. "We have to get you to the hospital," he told her.

Pia shook her head slowly, "I just want to go home..." She quietly cried.

"You have to go..." Sam tried to reason with her.

"No. Please Sam, I want to go home!" She insisted.

"It's OK," Dean assured her, "We'll take you home." He picked the keys up where she had dropped them on the car floor, got in the front seat, and started the car.

Sam closed the door, returned to the Mustang, and followed his brother.

(...)_

Dean parked the Impala in the garage, ran around to the back passenger side, and helped Pia out, "Can you walk?" She nodded, and leaned on him as they progressed slowly into the bunker. Sam raced in with the Mustang, and proceeded to close everything down for the night.

Dean sat Pia down at the kitchen table. "Let me take a look at your head." He offered.

Pia pulled away. "I'm ok," she professed. "I just need to take a shower."

"Don't you think it's better if you..." Sam started to say as he entered the room.

"No." She answered, firmly, "I'm going to take a shower." She got up, and worked her way to the shower room. Feeling dizzy, she kept herself steady against the wall as she walked.

Dean was about to stop her when Sam held him back. "Give her some time," he advised his brother.

Pia started the shower, and looked at her reflection in the mirror as she took off her shirt. She stared solemnly at her cut lip, and the bruises forming on her arm where they held her back. Carefully feeling through the matted hair, she trepidatiously touched the cut on the back of her head. Staring at the blood it left on her fingers, she took a deep breath before going into the shower. The hot water stung the wound on her head, but she persisted. Pink suds circled the drain as she washed her hair.

When she finished, she braced herself against the shower wall, and began to turn the tap to the left, gasping when the hot water fell, punishingly on her back, controlling it and making it hotter as she became accustomed to the heat. She didn't stop until Sam, noticing the steam coming from under the bathroom door, gave a quick knock and asked, "Is everything alright?"

Pia jerked upright, suddenly brought back to reality. "I'll be out in a minute," She informed him.

"Ok," he said, and then, as an afterthought, turned back and announced, "Dinner will be ready soon." Pia didn't answer. Sam waited a moment before he reluctantly went back to the kitchen.

Sam and Dean ate dinner virtually in silence, and were almost done when Pia appeared in the doorway, looking like a drowned rat. She had found Dean's housecoat, which was several sizes too big for her. "I hope you don't mind..." she started to say.

"No, of course not," Dean answered, "Whatever you need."

There was an awkward silence as Sam placed her dinner in front of her. Not really hungry, she thanked him, and pushed the food around with a fork, distracted. The robe inadvertently tumbled down from her shoulder. Pia quickly drew it back up again, but not before Dean saw the bruises underneath. It was all he could do to contain himself. Sam watched his brother with consternation.

"I should have been there..." Dean said, regretfully.

Pia finally looked up, "It's not your fault." She rationalized, "I tried to fight harder..."

Sam sat down beside her. "If you had, you might be dead now." Pia didn't say anything, she knew he was right.

"We need to go to the police," Dean suggested, adamantly.

Pia shook her head. "It's not worth the trouble. The last thing I need is a bunch of strangers looking me over." She commented. Dean looked at her inquisitively. "Look, this isn't my first rodeo," she informed them, "I have a knack for being in the wrong place, at the wrong time." She reflected. "I'm just lucky they didn't kill me."

"Lucky?" Dean exploded. "This is LUCKY?" He got up off the chair. "They can't get away with this...they won't get away with this!"

Pia grabbed his sleeve. "No, Dean, there's nothing you can do." She tried to reason with him.

Dean pulled away from her, and went back to his room to brood.

Pia threw her fork down, and pushed her plate away, clearly upset.

(...)_

Sam looked into Pia's room. She was fast asleep. Worried about the possibility of a concussion, he had made it a point to check on her periodically all night. As he went down the hallway, he heard a piercing scream. Alarmed, he ran back to her room, where she was thrashing about, and shook her awake. She sat up, breathless, and clung on to him. "I was in the old house..." she cried, "The ghosts..."

"You're not making any sense, Pia," Sam tried to get through to her, "What ghosts?"

Realizing where she was, she began to calm down. Sam turned on the light, and gave her a glass of water from the night table. "When I was six, I was put in this foster home." She recollected, "I think it was a rooming house at one time. There were three stories, but the top floor was never used. It was gutted, and there were inches of dust on the banisters and the floors." She stopped to take a drink, and gather her thoughts. "Whenever I misbehaved, my foster mother would lock me in the stairwell, in the dark, and I could SWEAR I saw a ghost coming to get me." She looked at Sam with tears welling in her eyes. "I have no idea what I could have done to warrant that kind of punishment, I mean, who DOES that?" she tried to reason, mostly to herself.

Sam shook his head, compassionately as she spoke. "I would scream and scream for hours, and every time I turned around to look at the ghost, it was closer, and closer...until it went right THROUGH me! It was so cold, Sam, it was like ice grabbing my heart..." she wiped the tears from her eyes, and continued. "I must've passed out, because the next thing I remember, it was morning, I was covered in dust...and my foster mother was opening the door to let me out." She gave a stuttered sigh, "I know it sounds crazy. People keep telling me I just have an overactive imagination, but I know it happened!" Fearfully, she looked into his eyes, "You've GOT to believe me..."

"I do." Was the reply.

"You're just saying that..." Pia looked away, "nobody believes me."

Sam put a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Do you know what hunters do, Pia?" He asked her. She shook her head. "We hunt things..." He tried to simplify it, "that go bump in the night." She looked up at him, inquisitively optimistic. "Ghosts ARE real," he continued, "and we destroy them."

"So what I saw..." she dared to hope, "was it...real?"

"Sounds like it."

Pia felt encouraged, "Then maybe I'm not crazy, after all," There was still something bothering her, "but...why am I getting these nightmares now? It's been years since I've thought about it!"

"You've just been through a traumatic experience," Sam answered, "and sometimes one trauma triggers another one, it's a form of PTSD"

"I can't have PTSD," she dismissed, "only soldiers that went to war have PTSD!"

"Not true," Sam was not willing to let it go, "It affects anyone who've been through a horrible ordeal, I've had it, and Dean's had it."

"Really? What did you do about it?"

"Closure helps. Where did you live when this happened?"

"Keystone."

"South Dakota?"

"Yeah, the foot of Mt. Rushmore. They have some creepy buildings where all the badass cowboys lived back in the day, they even have ghost talks and ghost walks, all tongue-in-cheek, of course."

"That's not far from here," he reasoned, "Why don't we go there in the morning?"

"And...what?"

"Give you some closure." He turned off the light, and headed for the door.

"O...k," She wasn't quite sure what she was agreeing to but decided it would be more prudent to ask him about it in the morning. "Sam...could you leave the door open?"

"Sure." He said, as he left. "Goodnight, Pia."

"Goodnight, Sam."

(...)_

Dean spent a restless night. He looked over at the clock, which still said 4:00. He could have sworn that was what it said an hour ago, as well. He sat up in the bed. Time was going too slow, leaving him with only his thoughts and regret for company. As he got dressed, he picked up his pearl-handled revolver, checked the chamber, and hesitated for a moment before replacing it back under his pillow. Grabbing his jacket on the way out, he gave one last look at the quiet bunker, as if hoping someone would stop him before heading out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, Sam and Pia drove to Keystone in the Mustang. "Where's Dean?" She asked.

"I don't know, he wasn't around this morning when I got up." Was the answer, "We often do things independently, you know, " he added, "We're not joined at the hip."

"Could've fooled me," She mused. "How far is Keystone from here?"

"About 6 hours, do you know the address?"

"Yeah, sure, it was the first address I ever had to memorize. 56 Dakota Lane, you always remember your first!" She joked, but it went over like a lead balloon. She changed the subject. "Umm...Sam?"

"Uh-huh?"

She had a serious thought, "What are we going to do there?"

"Well, if it's a ghost, there are several reasons why it's there." He started, "it could be a haunting, of course, or unfinished business, or they're attached to a cursed object."

"Cursed object?"

"Yeah, that's the hardest one to figure out," he explained, "it could be anything, from a lighter to a giant elephant statue, and then, most importantly, you have to destroy it."

"How do you destroy a giant elephant statue?"

"Most cursed objects you can salt and burn," Sam started, "a giant elephant statue, not so much. Technically, we blew it up...it had a fire pit inside, and we basically imploded it."

"And what about a run-of-the-mill haunting?"

"Grave digging."

"Huh?"

Sam smiled, knowing this was all new to her, "We dig up the corpse and salt and burn it."

Pia wrinkled up her nose, "Eeeewwwwww, you really dig up a corpse?"

"If we have to..."

"What does salting and burning do?"

"It's kinda like a...purification,"

"What happens to the ghost, then?"

"I'm not sure, I think they 'die'."

Pia thought for a moment, "That sucks for the ghost..."

Sam was surprised at her empathy, "I suppose..." He had never thought about it that way before.

(...)_

The black Impala was sitting in the same parking lot as before. Dean had been there all morning, and now it was approaching noon, and there was no sign of his prey. He sat back, feigning sleep, keeping one eye open at all times.

Before long, his tenacity paid off. Down the alleyway, he heard the boys' voices, laughing and joking with each other. As they passed his car, he counted 5 of them, including a huge fellow that he didn't recognize. He made a note to himself that he was the one to get rid of, first.

Reaching under his seat, Dean brought out his trusty flashlight. It was more of a weapon than a flashlight, a foot and a half long, made of reinforced steel, and shaped like a baseball bat. He got out of the car. "Hey!" He called after them. Upon recognizing him, they scattered. "Son of a Bitch!" He exclaimed to himself, and chased after the biggest one.

Nimbly jumping out of the way as the behemoth lunged at him, Dean easily cracked him on the shin with his flashlight. To his astonishment, the boy started to cry. "You hurt me!" He wailed, sitting on the gravel, holding his leg.

Dean let down his guard, and took a closer look at the boy. He was more of a man-child than an adult. "Damn." He thought, feeling bad for him. He had clearly been coerced into joining forces with the youths, not having the wherewithal to implement such havoc himself. Leaving the boy there, Dean set off to find the others.

(...)

Sam reached over and shook Pia, who had fallen asleep. "We're here," he said, softly.

She stirred slightly, and looked around as she stretched. Straight in front of them, was an old, dilapidated house. "It's a lot smaller than I remember it," she said.

"YOU were a lot smaller." Sam reasoned.

"I guess," She looked a little closer, the windows were boarded up. "Is it...abandoned?"

"I think so..." Sam answered, "A lot can happen in 30 years."

"Oh, right..." She didn't realize it had been that long, "So...now what do we do?"

"Getting out of the car is a start..." Sam pointed out, "And then we see if anyone's home."

They went up to the house, and knocked on the door, "Oh, too bad, no one's home!" Pia said, quickly, as she turned and jumped back down the porch stairs.

There was an audible 'click'. "Pia..." Sam called to her.

Pia's heart sunk as she turned around. Sam had jimmied the lock and held the door open. "Great," she muttered under her breath as she looked up at the foreboding house and reluctantly climbed back up the stairs.

The house was truly abandoned, and Pia stayed behind Sam anxiously. This was a lot more than she had bargained for. The rooms were exactly as she imagined ghost houses' would be like, dust covering the sparse furniture, overturned lamps, graffiti on the walls, and worse, no electricity. Sam handed her a flashlight, "Keep this with you," he advised, "you'll need it when the sun sets." Pia looked at him in shock. She hadn't realized she would be there in the DARK. They climbed the stairs. One flight, two flights, finally they were at the door that opened to the third story. Sam stopped and faced her before they opened it. "What do you remember?"

"Not much..." She admitted.

"I'm going to open the door," he warned, "and I want you to go in." He saw her breathing double in speed as she started to panic, "I'll be right here," he assured her.

Pia closed her eyes to calm herself as she stepped into the stairway. When she opened her eyes, and saw the stairwell, it all came flooding back. In her mind's eye, she watched the ghost coming down the stairs to her, and most importantly, she saw her face. She dropped the flashlight, and ran out, bumping into Sam. "No, no!" She cried, her face buried in his shirt, "I can't..." She ran past him, down the two flights of stairs, and out to the porch. Sam chased after her, saw her lean over the porch railing, and managed to pull her hair back as she threw up over the edge. He looked away before he felt sick, too. After a few moments, Pia stood back up, shaken, and looked over the edge. "Whoa, I'm never eating THAT again..." as always, trying to negate the situation with jocularity. "I SO have to brush my teeth, now." She stumbled to the car uneasily.

Sam unlocked the door with the remote, and she brought out a small toothbrush and toothpaste. "You OK?" He asked as she spat out the toothpaste behind the car.

"I saw her face," She told him, wiping her mouth with her sleeve, "it was a...a little girl!"

"Really? How old?"

Pia couldn't see what that had to do with anything, but nonetheless she answered, "About 6?"

Sam indicated for her to follow him behind the house. "A lot of old houses had cemeteries in the back." He explained to her. "If your ghost died approximately 200 years ago, which I suspect she did, she should be buried there." They made their way to the cemetery, which was about a hundred yards from the house, and in the quickly fading light of the setting sun, they searched all the tombstones for names and ages. "So many of these have been vandalized," Sam announced, dismayed.

"Here's one..." Pia called out, "Oh, wait...it's a boy."

"1852-1856...no, too young." Sam looked at the remaining headstones. "Here it is!"

Pia rushed to his side, "1833-1839, Molly MacDonald," she read, "That's her!" She exclaimed, pointing to the crude picture etched in the stone. Sam turned on his flashlight as twilight began to fall, and started digging. "My flashlight!" Pia suddenly remembered she had left it in the house. She ran back, racing the encroaching darkness.


	4. Chapter 4

Two boys walked quickly down the street, glancing nervously behind them. They were so preoccupied that they didn't see Dean stepping in front of them. "Hi, Boys," he said, noticing almost with amusement that one of them had his mouth wired shut and a brace on his neck. The more agile of the two pushed the one with the brace into Dean and took off. Dean immediately thrust the boy into the wall beside them, and was about to strike, when the youth groaned loudly and fainted.

Shaking his head in futility, Dean ran after the other boy, tackling him on the grass, and pinning him down, laying punch after punch, finally grabbing him by the shirt, and wound up to lay the final blow. "I'm sorry, man," the boy blurted out, "I'm sorry we went after your girlfriend, it was Axel's idea!" Dean executed one last punch, and the boy dropped, unconscious.

(...)_

Pia dashed up the steps of the house, taking two at a time. When she reached the third stairwell, she could just make out the flashlight in the dark, on the bottom stair. Mustering up all her courage, Pia grabbed the flashlight just as the sun's rays disappeared over the horizon. Without warning, the door slammed closed, knocking her onto the floor of the staircase. "NO!" She shouted, as she whirled around and tried to open the door. It was locked. "SAM!" She cried out, "HELP! SAM!" There was no answer.

Sam was far away, busy digging up the grave. He hadn't gotten very far. The earth was particularly hard because it had not been moved, literally, for centuries.

A familiar chill in the air engulfed Pia, and she could see her breath. She stopped banging on the door, turned on the flashlight, and tentatively looked behind her. At the top of the staircase was a white figure, slowly descending. She hesitated for a second, and then turned back around, pounding on the locked door once again. "SAM!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, "LET ME OUT! SAM!" The flashlight went out.

Sam stopped to wipe his brow, and realized Pia was nowhere in sight. He made a mental note to look for her later, as he took a drink from his water bottle, shrugged, and continued digging.

Pia looked behind her again. The figure was now on the bottom step. She stood there, in total darkness, frozen with fear. She could make out the face of a little girl, dressed in a white nightgown. And then it spoke. "Pia?" She said.

Pia wondered how she knew her name, but the surprising familiarity of her voice prompted her to ask, "M...Molly?"

"I've been waiting for you," Molly said as she hovered in front of her, "I can't do it alone."

"Do wh..what?" Pia managed to stammer.

"Look for my dolly," Molly insisted, "You promised me you'd help me find Ella." She came closer to Pia, and began to envelop her.

Instantly, the memories came rushing back. "No, wait! I know where she is!" Pia exclaimed, backing up against the door. "I remember where Ella is! I can get her for you!" As suddenly as the door locked, it opened again, and Pia fell out of the stairway onto the floor. She ran outside.

(...)_

As darkness fell, Dean saw Axel run into the park, and followed him, not realizing that Axel had climbed a tree along the pathway. He jumped Dean from behind, and they rolled down the hill. Dean dropped his trusty flashlight, which stopped halfway down, casting an eerie glow, illuminating them against the darkness as they fought. Axel got up first, and tried to kick Dean in the face, but Dean was able to grab his boot, and threw him off balance. When they managed to pick themselves off the ground, the youth hurled himself into Dean, who fell back, and with one fluid move, pitched Axel over his body, and he went tumbling over the edge of the hill. Dean gasped, and ran to the precipice. To his relief, the boy was hanging to a root two feet from the top. "Help me!" He yelled. Dean reached down and grabbed his hand to pull him up, but as he did so, Axel slashed his arm with the knife he held in his other hand. Wounded, Dean dropped his hold, and Axel fell down to the railroad tracks below, in a lifeless heap.

(...)_

Sam unearthed a tiny coffin, and threw salt and kerosene from a small bottle into the grave. He was about to light a match, when he heard his name. "SAM!" Came a voice from far away. He watched as the light from a flashlight came closer. "SAM! STOP!" Pia cried out as she made her way through the cemetery.

Sam hesitated as Pia approached, "What's the matter?" He asked.

"I know what she wants!"

"Who?"

"Molly!" Exclaimed Pia, breathlessly. "Come with me...and bring your shovel." As they ran closer to the house, she explained, "I remember, now!" she panted. "She...Molly...somehow entered my body, and I...we..." she bent over, winded, not able say anything more.

"Molly possessed you?" Sam tried to understand as he handed her his water bottle.

"Yeah, I guess so," Pia said, as she took a sip, "but I let her, I was helping her find her doll," They reached a spot beside the house with a large rock. She took two small steps from the base of the rock, and put her hand down on the grass. "Dig here..." she instructed Sam.

He put his shovel into the dirt, and started digging. "That's why I was all covered in dust when my foster mother opened the door the next morning, we were looking for this..." As Sam uncovered a shoebox, Pia went down on her knees and started to brush off the remaining dirt. "But it wasn't on the third floor...I found this in the basement of the house, and in order to keep it away from the other foster kids, I buried it here..." She opened the shoebox, and inside was a porcelain doll. Its' face was dirty, and it had no clothes, but it was obvious someone loved her, once. "I guess I never realized this was Ella, Molly's doll," She smiled with satisfaction, as she fluffed up its' hair, "I forgot all about it!" They hurried back into the house.

Molly was waiting in the stairwell. "Oh, Ella!" She exclaimed as Pia handed her the doll, "I've been looking all over for you!" The doll, appearing in Molly's arms to be wearing a white dress, became transparent as she hugged it. "Thank you, Pia, for finding her!" Pia smiled as Sam looked on in amazement. Then, Molly looked beyond them and pointed. "There's a light..." She exclaimed.

"That light's for you, Molly," Sam managed to say, "go into it." He prompted her.

Mesmerized, Molly walked past them, and disappeared. Pia and Sam looked at each other, and gave a high five. They exited the house, together.

(...)_

It was dark, but one would hardly know it with all the emergency lights flashing, along with the constant murmur of police dispatches. Dean sat on the bumper of an ambulance, his right forearm bandaged, looking miserable. A policeman was taking notes. "I tried to save him." Dean insisted.

"This is the boy that raped your girlfriend?" The policeman asked, doubtfully.

"He fell over the edge," Dean explained, "I was trying to help him back up, but he pulled a knife on me," He indicated to his bandaged arm.

The policeman had no solid proof of wrongdoing. "Ok, well, we have your number if we have any more questions." He dismissed Dean.

Dean let out a regretful sigh as he saw Axel's body being loaded into the black coroner's van in a body bag. As angry as he was, he had not intended for this to be the final outcome.

(...)_

Sam and Pia arrived back at the bunker around midnight. Sam came into the kitchen, where Dean was sitting. It was obvious he had been drinking. A LOT. "Hey," Sam greeted him. "What'd you do today?"

"I was in town, tying up some loose ends..." was the answer, "where were you?"

"We were taking care of some 'business'."

"With Pia?" Dean asked with surprise.

Sam chuckled, "Yeah..."

"How did she do?"

"She did alright," Sam surmised, "She saved a ghost!"

"She did what?"

Pia appeared at the doorway with a box.

"I'll tell you later..." Sam promised his brother.

"Sam," She said, quietly, "Can you help me salt and burn this?"

"What is it?"

Pia took a deep breath..."It's Alexi's music. I'll never sing these songs again, now that I know what they can do...and I want to make sure that he...he..." She had a hard time finding the right words.

"Doesn't come back to haunt you?" Sam finished her train of thought.

Pia looked relieved, and nodded.

"OK, we'll do it tonight."


	5. Episode 2 Epilogue

Sam, Dean and Pia stood together by the incinerator and watched the box go up in flames. "I'm leaving tomorrow..." she told them.

Dean was taken aback. "Why?" He asked her.

"I have to go back to doing what I do best. Besides, I feel lost without Alexi." She sighed. "I know this sounds cliche, but I need to 'find myself'." she accentuated with a parenthesis sign. "I've been everything HE wanted me to be for so long."

"You could stay..." Sam offered, "Help us hunt..."

"Oh, no, no, no, no!" She shook her head and laughed, "Look, I'm not tough, like you guys," she tried to explain, "They could do me in with a milkshake!" She joked.

Sam whispered to his brother, "Lactose..."

"Oh..." Dean uttered, not really understanding.

"But thanks...anyways?" Pia continued.

"Well, the offer stands, if you change your mind." Reassured Sam as they turned and walked back to the bunker. "I'll grab some water and douse the fire."

A gust of wind blew sparks up from the incinerator into the air, lifting up one barely singed sheet of music, and carried it far away into the darkness of the autumn night.

THE END


End file.
